


Across The Universe

by Moxxi_But_Dumber



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Abuse Mentions, Abusive Relationships, Andy is a BAMF, Background Relationships, Canon Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Rhys is a BAMF, Violence, fight me, idk - Freeform, mentions of past Jack/Nisha, mostly tftbl and post tales, past Rhys/Vaughn, potentially graphic sexual content, this is super self indulgent, time jumps all over the place, tiny oc with hidden powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-05 17:55:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18371132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moxxi_But_Dumber/pseuds/Moxxi_But_Dumber
Summary: Rhys befriends the creator of his cybernetics, Pandoran-born Andy. With her glowing prototype ECHO eye, past as Handsome Jack's favorite engineer, and strange accent, the mysterious engineer is a strange but welcome addition to his friend group.With the events of Tales in motion, Andy takes any excuse to return to Pandora. After saving Rhys and Vaughn's lives, Andy reveals a secret she once killed to keep.





	1. Prologue

One of the better perks of middle management on Helios was the cafeteria. It wasn’t as fancy as upper management, who, rumor had it, had a Michelin star chef on hand at all times, and none of the wine options were under two hundred dollars a glass. But it was still brilliant, the food was always fresh and hot, and the soda was always cold.  
Lunchtime was Rhys’ favourite time of day. It gave him a brief respite from his ‘Hyperion face’ and time to see his friends. Usually he was content to sit and listen to Vaughn and Yvette argue while he picked at his food; he was still getting used to the cybernetics, and coordination of holding a fork with a robot hand wasn’t the simplest of tasks. Cracking a soda, on the other hand? Easy.  
Technically, he wasn’t meant to drink sodas. Vaughn got on his back about it every time; if he wanted to be Mr Hyperion, he needed to look the part. Rhys usually trusted his best friend on this, Vaughn was far more observant than he was. However, it had been a long day, and it was only half over. He was pretty sure he’d earned that sweet, sugary goodness. He’d order something to eat in a minute; right now he just wanted caffeine. 

“Hey, Rhys?” 

“C’mon, man, it’s one cola.” After all, Vaughn didn’t need to know about the amount of caffeine pills he was sinking to power through the days.  
“Not that. Have you noticed that same girl from Engineering has been staring at us every day this week?”  
No, Rhys had not noticed. Now that Vaughn was drawing it to his attention, though, he turned and stared, like an idiot. There was, indeed, a girl from engineering staring at him in mild fascination. Her bleached hair was pulled back into a short braid, a maroon lab coat covering a Hyperion yellow blouse and black dress pants. There was something off about her eyes, but he couldn’t place it.  
A quick scan with his newly installed ECHO eye gave him a few facts. Pandoran native. His age. Her hairstyle had drastically changed, as had her attire, but she had once appeared on several Hyperion propaganda posters. 

 

“She’s the head of bioengineering.” Yvette said, before he could get a word in, “requests some really weird shit sometimes. Our age.”  
“And heading right for us.” Vaughn added, adjusting his glasses, “I wonder if we’re in trouble?”  
“Unlikely,” Yvette countered, returning her attention to her menu, “Bioengineering deals with ECHO implants, and Rhys, you’re the only lunatic to get both so far.”  
Ah. That explained… something? Before Rhys made the connections, however, the girl was standing next to him.  
“Sorry for just staring at you,” she started – her accent was weird, Rhys couldn’t quite place it – “not to sound like a total creep but I looked you up in the system. I don’t think you remember, we’ve met before, but you were totally out of it on drugs. My name is Pandora. Most people call me Andy.”  
The only time Rhys had been on drugs on Helios, he had been recovering from his cybernetic implant surgery. Had she been there? She must have been.  
“You… “ he struggled to remember, “you brought me painkillers, right?”  
A nod.  
“I know it’s not… the Hyperion thing, to just come over and try being friendly. But I designed your implants. You’re the first person to get them both. I just wanted to see how you recovered.” She pronounced some words wrong, at least in ways that sounded wrong to Rhys, like she was trying to fit in with the standard Hyperion accent.  
“I mean, so far so good?” he rolled his robot shoulder to demonstrate.  
“I’m sorry if this is really rude, but can I buy you and your friends lunch? I’d really like to hear about your recovery and how you’re finding the implants. I’m working on some upgrades to the software and, well, you’re my only point of reference.”  
He glanced at Yvette, then at Vaughn, who gave minute shrugs. Hey, free lunch was free lunch.  
“Sure,” he scooted over on the bench awkwardly, “I’d be glad to help.”  
Who knew, maybe she had some friends in high places who could get him that promotion a lot faster…

 

Vaughn and Yvette didn’t seem to mind the guest at their table, even less so when they had their respective orders in front of them (a fancy shrimp and chicken salad that Vaughn swore by, and a steak sandwich with extra cheese), and thus an excuse not to talk. Rhys had gotten another cola for his nerves, and a couple of slices of his favourite pizza.  
“So is there any residual pain?” Pandora – Andy – started with, staring at Rhys over her coffee cup with dark purple eyes. It took him a moment to realise one was an ECHO implant, or something very similar.  
“Uh, not really? Sometimes I forget how heavy this arm is, though. I had to start lifting weights to counter my other arm.” He hadn’t wanted to have one jacked robot arm and one regular, noodley human arm.  
“So if the arm was just as durable but more lightweight, that would be an improvement?”  
“I guess so? I think it’s a big commitment, to cut your arm off and replace it with a robot arm. Maybe it’s also the weight of the thing that concerns people?” Rhys was slipping into salesman mode automatically – this was something he was good at, he could find flaws in product designs and suggest improvements. The fact that he was pretty certain the girl sitting next to him had once been pretty chummy with his all-time hero was barely fazing him.

“You’re right, Rhys,” she agreed, “it is a big commitment. It’s partially why I was so interested in meeting you, because nobody else thus far has taken the leap to have both cybernetics.”  
“The ECHO eye is popular, though,” Vaughn put in, “we have heaps of people who have them.”  
“That’s very true,” Andy nodded, “It’s invasive but less so than losing an arm. Even so, I would be lost without mine.”  
Her comment confirmed Rhys’ suspicion about one of her eyes.  
“Mine was the prototype. Jack insisted I used a test subject, that someone would want the tech. I found it would be easier to update and modify if I implanted it in my own eye.” Andy shrugged, stretched, then stood. “Anyway, I’ve taken up enough of your time. I should be getting back to my office. Thank you for your help, Rhys.”  
She was off before the trio could even get a goodbye out. 

 

“Nice lady,” Yvette commented around her sandwich.

“I didn’t even answer much,” Rhys was puzzled, “I think she just wanted to meet me. Weird.”  
Vaughn shrugged.  
“She knew Handsome Jack, though. That’s pretty damn cool.” Rhys enthused, “man, I wish I’d gotten her office location or something, she seemed kind of lonely. Bet she’d like visitors. Plus she can probably fix that tweak in my wrist.” 

He was just about to complain his lack of thinking, when Vaughn pointed out the business card left neatly under the empty coffee cup their guest had left behind.  
“Huh,” Rhys fished it out, “pays to be Hyperion, I guess.”  
He made a note to swing past Andy’s office one evening to get his robot wrist looked at.  
“I don’t think that’ll be the last we see of her, if I’m honest.” Vaughn commented.  
“No,” Rhys agreed, “me either.”


	2. One

It had been almost a month since Andy had joined Rhys and his friends in the cafeteria. He had had a further conversation with her about a week later, when he had finally found time to go and get his wrist joints looked at.   
"These are fine, just make sure you use them regularly so they don't seize up." She had suggested that he do little puzzle games at his desk to use the artificial muscles in his hand.   
He had nodded and taken note of her suggestion, but really he'd been more interested in the photos pinned onto the side of her holoscreen.   
The first was of a clearly Pandoran family; mom and three kids. The elder siblings were a large girl and a scrawny guy both dressed in typical mechanic gear. The younger girl, Rhys recognised as Andy, though her hair was dark back then. All four were smiling.   
The second picture drew his attention more. It was a photograph of Handsome Jack, taken back when he had first become CEO of Hyperion. Beside him, his arm slung casually over her shoulder, stood Andy, a large gun on her back. Her hair was blonde, here. She was smiling here, too, but the expression wasn't quite right.   
Rhys wondered whether she missed her Pandoran family. They were bandits, surely, but they didn't look unkind.   
It was the first photograph that made him invite her to eat with him and his friends again. At first, she had been hesitant, but after a while, she'd just started showing up. Now, it was almost a guarantee that she would join them at their usual table. Nowadays, though, she actually ate, rather than just consuming coffee like it was going out of fashion. 

Today, it was Rhys' turn to be a little too nervous to eat. He had been, for lack of a better term, kissing ass to his boss for a while, hoping to climb the corporate ladder. It seemed to be paying off; Henderson had invited him to a corporate function that evening, the sort of event where you turned up, sipped wine and swapped business cards whilst simultaneously being the most self congratulatory bunch of assholes imaginable. 

He slid onto the bench next to Vaughn, who was busily double checking some numbers across the lens of his glasses.   
"That's really all you're gonna eat?" Yvette, notorious for leeching lunch, stared at Rhys' mostly empty tray. He had chosen just some bread rolls and a cup of hot soup.   
"I'm too nervous for tonight," Rhys muttered back, "not all of us get hungry when we're anxious."  
Yvette shrugged, spearing a potato with her fork, "your loss."   
"You're going to the business card swap meet?" Andy looked up from her barely-legible notebook; she had been reading notes in it with one hand, shoveling pizza into her mouth with the other.   
"Uh-huh. Boss invited me. I hope my work clothes will do? Maybe a different tie?"

Andy snapped her notebook closed.   
"Absolutely not. They'll tear you to shreds. I'm coming to your apartment beforehand. I'll help you pick something out."   
Rhys blinked at the sudden businesslike tone.   
"Uh? Sure? Shall we just go to the thing together then? I mean if you're coming over anyway?" He wasn't sure if that was what she had been implying, and so thought it was best to check.   
Under the table, Vaughn stomped on his foot. Apparently it had been obvious.   
"If you'd like," Andy shrugged, "I'll try not to cramp your style."   
Rhys snorted. 

At ten past seven that evening, he found her, as promised, outside his apartment door. To nobody's surprise, least of all hers, he was glad to see her.   
His bottom half, at least, he had dressed correctly, in some nice shoes and pinstripe pants. The top half had, thus far, been a disaster.   
"Help?" He said in greeting, pausing only very briefly to stare. Her businessy pants and lab coat had been replaced by a long sleeved knee length dress in black, edged in Hyperion gold. She'd made her usually frayed short braid silky, somehow; untied her hair was lightly wavy and just above her shoulders.   
"You can close your mouth, Rhys," purple eyes rolled at him, but not unkindly. She was already going through his clothing pile, emerging with a plain black shirt and a blue tie that matched his ECHO eye.   
"Put these on." She turned to face him, "Nice tattoos."   
It occurred to him that she had only seen them once, and she had been fixing his robot arm.   
"Thanks. Uh, how do I tie this?"  
"I'll tell you, that one will look good if you do it in a Windsor."   
Obediently, Rhys followed her direction to tie the tie a certain way. It was the way all the fancy guys did theirs, she assured him. 

By quarter to eight, they were on their way to the executive deck, which was just a fancy name for the cluster of board rooms and ball rooms where the business expos and corporate events were held.   
“You’ll be absolutely fine, just don’t come off too arrogant. Only give cards to people lower on the ladder than you first. Wait til you’re asked for a card or what you do by someone higher on the ladder.” Andy, he noticed, did not have a pocket for business cards.  
“You’re not hoping to make any connections?”  
She gave him a wry smile.   
“I don’t think there’s anyone in that board room who doesn’t already know who I am.”   
Rhys digested this information as they made their way along the hallway. That made sense; she had once worked directly with Handsome Jack. Of course all the higher ups on the corporate ladder would know her. The thought was mildly unsettling.   
“Just relax, alright? I’ll back you up if you get stuck.”  
“Thanks.” He truly meant it, wiping his regular hand on his pants; last thing he wanted was to shake hands with some executive with a sweaty palm.  
“It’ll be fine.” Andy’s tone changed immediately upon facing the robot at the door. “Are you going to let us in? Or just stare at us all night?”  
Ah, Hyperion. It could make an asshole out of anyone, Rhys mused, already busy fixing his own expression into the typical company sneer.


End file.
